How To Save A Life
By: Ashley Owen Hill, guest columnist
THE MERIDIAN STAR
What does it take to save a life? Do you have to be schooled in medicine? No. Do you need to have a billion dollars in the bank? Negative. Do you need to have a ton of extra time on your hands? Not so much.
With pets, all it takes to save a life is the willingness to temporarily open your home to a dog or cat in need. This is called “fostering a pet.”
Fostering a rescue pet is one of the most rewarding things you can ever do, because you will truly save a life. Basically, a foster family brings a dog or cat into their home until the pet’s adoptive family can be found.
Fostering can be done through an organization like my rescue group, Lucky Dog Rescue. The rescue group provides the food and vet care, you just provide the love.
Rescue dogs and cats need one-on-one attention and socialization, as most of them have never received proper care. Foster homes are essential in providing this special love for pets when they need it most.
The length of stay in a foster home varies. It depends on how long it takes to find the right adoptive home for the pet. Some pets will only be with their foster family for a couple of days; some may be there for weeks or a couple of months.
However, the goal of the rescue group is to place each pet with the perfect adoptive family as quickly as possible. If at some point the pet can no longer stay in the foster home for whatever reason, every effort will be made to find other placement for the pet.
Why is fostering important? Rescue groups desperately need foster homes in order to continue to save pets in need. Any dog or cat taken in by a rescue group must have a place to go until the pet can be adopted. If there is no space for the animal, the pet cannot be saved.
Many rescue groups have no shelter facility, so these organizations depend on foster homes to care for the pets until adoption. In addition, foster homes provide much-needed attention and socialization for each pet, making them more adoptable.
If you have ever considered fostering a pet, now is the time. Please don’t wait for ‘some day’ in the future that will never come. Dogs and cats are euthanized in shelters every day, because there aren’t enough foster homes to get them to safety.
You may think that your house is too small, or that you already have too many pets in your home to foster another. Trust me, if I can foster in my modest-sized house with all of my dogs, then you can, too!
These pets don’t care how much space you have. They need love. They need shelter. They need hope. Please, save a life. You can make a difference today! Foster!
Ashley Owen Hill is the owner of Lucky Dog Retreat, 8659 Hillview Dr, Meridian. Email her at luckydogrescueblog@gmail.com. Follow her blog at http://www.luckydogrescueblog.blogspot.com/.
You are wise beyond your years.
ReplyDeleteI so wish I could be a dog fosterer, I live with my parents and my step dad is very anti-dogs, so it's completely out of the question. I'm definitely doing this when I'm older and have my own house though, without a doubt.
ReplyDeleteI am disabled and confined to a wheelchair and foster puppies and/or kittens. They don't care or judge me-like people do-all they want is to eat and be held which I can do. This has helped me more than them
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I am sharing this on my facebook page now. Watchout, friends, I'm pushing you again.(:
ReplyDeleteJust share on my facebook page. Thank you for what you do.
ReplyDeleteBless you for what you do.
ReplyDelete